Darin Fox and Todd Reardon

April 6, 2011

Indiana

Two Southern Indiana co-workers claim $221.7 million; Former welders are now multi-millionaires
Two very lucky Indiana men have claimed a $221.7 million PowerballŪ jackpot. Darin Fox of Clarksville, Ind. and Todd Reardon of Jeffersonville, Ind. were surrounded by friends, family, lawyers and accountants as they presented their lucky Powerball ticket - a slip of paper worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars - to Hoosier Lottery officials Thursday morning.

In exchange, Hoosier Lottery Executive Director Kathryn Densborn presented the men with their winnings at a press conference at Hoosier Lottery Headquarters in Indianapolis.

For the past eight years the two Southern Indiana men worked together as welders in the small Southern Indiana town of Clarksville located on the Ohio River just across from Louisville, Ky.

The men are now calling themselves "retired welders."

The men became good friends as a result of working together and pool their money to purchase Hoosier Lotto tickets for every drawing. Because the Powerball jackpot was so big they decided to play Powerball, too, on April 6.

"We put $2 on Hoosier Lotto and $2 on Powerball and the rest has been a whirlwind," said Fox.

Darin Fox is not married. Todd Reardon is married. He and his wife Tiffany are parents to an 11-year-old son. Tiffany wasted no time walking away from her job in record keeping at Humana Hospital.

They take turns purchasing the tickets and switch off when one of them hits a losing streak. Fox purchased the pair's winning ticket at Circle K located at 820 Eastern Blvd in Clarksville, Ind. That ticket was the only ticket nationwide to match all six numbers in the April 6 Powerball drawing worth $221,700,000. Fox and Reardon's lucky numbers are: 10-18-41-55-56 PB: 15.

The retailer that sold the jackpot winning ticket will receive a $100,000 bonus (1% of the jackpot capped at $100,000).

The pair says they've always talked about what they would do if they won, but say that now that they have won they want to proceed slowly. Fox described winning as "overwhelming."

"It's been a whirlwind figuring all this out," said Fox. "I'm used to living paycheck-to-paycheck."

As for their winnings, in the near future Fox plans to buy a new Ford F250 truck and Tiffany Reardon has her eye on a new Black Ops Jeep Wrangler. Todd Reardon just purchased a new Jeep a week prior to winning and is excited to be able to pay it off.

Eventually both men, who are avid hunters, would like to purchase land on which to hunt. Fox also has plans to buy his parents a house and his mother a convertible.

"It's been fun watching all this," said Russell Fox, Darin's father. "It's one of those dreams that you don't really think is going to come true."

Darin disagrees with his father slightly on the issue. "Everybody plays to win," said Darin Fox. "That's why we buy tickets, right?"

The men had the option of receiving $221.7 million as a 30 year annuity or in a lump sum of $111.7 million (before taxes). They opted to take the current cash value and each received $40 million ($40,002,146.87) after taxes.